Second Chances
by Skitty
Summary: Buffy and Angel work out some issues.
1. Default Chapter

Second Chances DisguisedDiva  
  
Disclaimer: These are sooooo pointless. Everyone knows I'm not Joss.  
  
Distribution: Let me know.  
  
Rating: I have no clue... just read it, no NC-17 stuff... not that that'll actually stop anyone under 18, will it? Didn't think so.  
  
Author's Notes/Spoilers: Into the Woods, and w/e the name of the Angel episode was. The one where he fired them.  
  
Summary: Buffy and Angel help each other through their rough periods.  
  
Story:  
  
Surrounded by pillows and blankets and tissues, Buffy Summers did not look like the powerful, awe inspiring Slayer she was. Any demon who saw her tonight would foolishly think she wasn't a real threat. But there weren't any demons in her bedroom, unless you counted memories of one particular vampire.  
  
She understood why Riley had left. She hadn't gotten it until after she'd gotten home. Angel was still everywhere in her heart. He was still in the living room, getting his wounds dressed. In the kitchen attacking Spike. In her bedroom leaning through her window, kissing her. Riley was nowhere.  
  
No, that wasn't true. Riley was still in the bed, which gave her a really dirty feeling. How could she have let him touch her the way only Angel ever should? Angel was her soul mate. How dare she think otherwise?  
  
Slowly, she stripped her bed, throwing the contaminated sheets to a pile on the floor. She quickly flipped the mattress over, scooped up the sheets and padded down to the basement. She tossed them into the washing machine and started it up. Then she picked out sheets Riley had never slept on, which wasn't too hard, it seemed she always had the ones she didn't like on her bed with him. And still the bed felt contaminated.  
  
She walked to the bathroom and stepped into the shower, wanting to wash Riley completely off her body, make it so he'd never been there and never would be again. It made her feel a little better. Not good, but better. She washed her hair and decided it was time for a change. Blond's were suppposed to be carefree and happy, but that had never worked for her. Yes, she'd start with her hair and make over her life.  
  
As she dressed, she heard Dawn's alarm sound and went down the stairs to get breakfast ready for her sister. With her mom sick, Buffy had taken up several new responsibilities around the house, one being her sister's well- being.  
  
As she moved around the kitchen there was a cheery song in her heart. It was a new day, the first day of the rest of her life. And she planned to spend the rest of her life with Angel, however she could.  
  
"You're awfully chipper this morning," Dawn noted, coming into the room.  
  
"Yup," Buffy answered happily.  
  
"Did you and Riley have a nice night?" she asked. "Because I don't see him around."  
  
"No, he left," Buffy told her.  
  
"Early morning?"  
  
"No, he left for good," the Slayer said, not a note of melancholy in her voice. "Hey, can you stay with Will and Tara tonight? I need to go somewhere."  
  
"Yeah, sure, I guess..." Dawn mumbled, clearly confused by her sister's cheerful attitude the morning after being dumped.  
  
"Great, I'll be back by tomorrow, okay?" Buffy went to call her Wiccan friends, who agreed to take her immediately. After getting Dawn off to school, she grabbed an extra stake, in case she ran into something, and hit the open highway.  
  
Reaching L.A. mid-morning, she decided not to wake Angel and when to visit her dad, instead.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Night had just fallen and Cordelia paced around the new office. She was bored. She wasn't even sure why they'd decided to run a buisiness without Angel. It was hopeless. They had no clients. Not a single one. And no name. And the worst office on the worst side of L.A. She wouldn't hire them.  
  
"Have a vision," Gunn demanded. Cordy glared at him.  
  
"I don't chose when I have them. It's not magic you know! I don't snap my fingers and go ow ow ow ow ow!!!" the brunette cried, dropping to the floor. Gunn rolled his eyes.  
  
"Alright, alright, sorry to offend Your Royal Dramaticness," he snapped. She didn't stop writhing in pain.  
  
"No, real vision!" she screamed. Immediately Gunn and Wesley were by her side. "It's Buffy, and Darla, and Dru. We need Angel." 


	2. Chapter Two

Second Chances Ch. 2 DisguisedDiva  
  
"I beg your pardon?" Wesley glared at the seer. "We can do this without his help. Need I remind you he fired us?"  
  
"No," Cordelia snapped. "Need I remind you both Darla and Drusilla have nearly taken Buffy out alone? Or that if Buffy dies, not only will you never forgive yourself, but neither will he? And I heard a rumor about Spike having a thing for her. Do you really want the two of them after you? After us?"  
  
Wesley made a gulping noise. "N-no, but I refuse to be the one to call him."  
  
"And who says he'll even pick up?" Gun wanted to know.  
  
"That's why I'm going to see him," Cordelia told them. Then she left the two men staring after her.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
As she came down the stairs, Angel barely looked out. "Don't even try it."  
  
"Try what?" Cordelia asked innocently.  
  
"I'm not coming back," Angel told her. "You guys might think what I'm doing is wrong, but I know it's what I have to do."  
  
"Oh, get over yourself!" she snapped. "I came because I had a vision. And I know you don't give a rats ass about the hopeless, but somewhere inside, you still love Buffy. So I thought you might want to know Darla and Dru are after her. She's on South Street, if you care."  
  
Angel was gone before Cordelia even finished. "And if she can't shake you out of it, there's no hope for you."  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Angel rushed to South Street, not paying attention to anything but Buffy as he raced to the scene. Drusilla held the Slayer by the throat, almost a foot off the ground while Darla closed in on the Slayer. As she sensed him near, Buffy's eyes roamed wildly. Drusilla too sensed Angel and lowered her a bit. Darla sank her teeth into the neck of the woman who'd stolen both vampiresses' loves.  
  
Both Angel and Gunn chose that moment to attack, Angel getting Darla off of Buffy, Gunn attempting to remove Drusilla's hand from her neck. While Dru was batting him off, Buffy butted her head backwards, into Dru, and elbowed her stomach. Buffy tucked into a roll as she was dropped. Darla saw quickly they were outnumbered when Wesley showed up with a crossbow and tried to run.  
  
Angel grabbed her and slammed her against a wall, beating her face in for awhile before whipping out a stake. This was going much quicker than he'd wanted, but Buffy's safety was involved. Suddenly Darla threw him off of her and into Buffy. Grabbing Dru, she ran again. This time he made no move to stop her. Gunn and Wesley were both pretty beaten, but would live. While he'd been struggling with Darla, however, Dru had clearly gotten the upperhand. There was yet another set of bite marks on Buffy's neck, and countless bruises and scars marred her perfect body.  
  
Scooping her into his arms, he left Wesley and Gunn on the floor, and rushed her to the hospital.  
  
Part Three  
  
When Buffy woke, Angel was nowhere in sight. Cordelia, however, was, which both startled and scared her. "Um, hi, Cordy," she said weakly, nervously.  
  
"Hi," the former cheerleader chirped.  
  
"How're Wesley and the other guy?" Buffy asked tentatively.  
  
"Gunn," Cordelia informed her. "They'll be fine. We were more worried about you."  
  
"You, uh, you were?"  
  
"Yeah, you were really touch and go there for awhile. Plus, black and blue, not really your ideal skin colors," Buffy smiled at Cordy's crack.  
  
"A-and Angel?" she asked, almost afraid to mention him, afraid to know.  
  
A dark cloud settled in Queen C's pretty eyes. "Why wouldn't he be good? He didn't really fight much did he?"  
  
"Did, uh, something happen?" Buffy asked. "You seem really..."  
  
"Pissed off?" Cordelia finished. Buffy nodded. "I am. Angel's been really screwed up lately. It started when they brought Darla back, human and terminally ill. And then they had Drusilla vamp her, right in front of him."  
  
"Oh God, Angel," Buffy gasped.  
  
"So then he goes on a 'have to destroy them both' trip, fired the three of us, let a bunch of evil lawyers die, and has been pretty unreasonable. Wesley, Gunn, and I struck together though. I still get the visions, and I had one of you and told him. According to Wes the fight was pretty one- sided though. Angel didn't really help you guys out much after he got Darla off you."  
  
"I don't remember, I must have blacked out," Buffy admitted. "Maybe I should talk to him?"  
  
"Would you try?" Cordelia asked her. "As much as I hate to admit it, he's most likely to react to you."  
  
Buffy nodded. "You're a good friend. For him. I never really gave you a chance in Sunnydale."  
  
"Yeah, well, I was a bitch. I blamed you for everything. Even stuff I shoulda blamed myself for," Cordy told her. "But, you know, I'd be willing to give you a shot now...?"  
  
The Slayer grinned. "I'd like that."  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Buffy walked into the Hyperion nervously, Cordelia, Gunn and Wesley in to be in the lobby when Buffy got him to come out. "Angel?" she called, her voice echoing through the hotel.  
  
"Here," he called back, coming up the stairs. He only had pants on, causing her heart to catch in her throat. Then he noticed the people around her. "What is this?"  
  
"Angel, please, just listen," Buffy begged him.  
  
"I know what you're going to say..."  
  
"Oh, really. Well then tell me. What am I going to say?" she asked him testily.  
  
"You're here because you love me. Because I'm going down the wrong path, and because I need to change," he answered. "But I'm not going to."  
  
"No, I'm not, although I do, damn, straight, and no you don't," Buffy fired back. "I'm here because you almost let me, Wesley and Gunn die, so you could keep an eye on Darla. You're obsessing in a bad way, and it could kill people. From what I hear, it has."  
  
"It's not your buisiness anymore. Go back to Riley," he spat the name like poison.  
  
"Riley left. He told me to get over you or get over him. But if you honestly think this is the good way to go? Maybe I chose wrong. Maybe coming here was a bad idea, but I wanted to see you. I left my mom with a brain tumor, and Dawn with Willow just so I could talk to you. I shouldn't have bothered," she snapped at him. "In fact, maybe I've been wrong the whole time. 'Cause if this is what you've turned into, I should've let you burn on Christmas morning. Or when you were sick. I should've let you die, but I didn't, did I? No, I let you do this. I made you do this," she showed him his mark on her. "God, Angel, I've given up so much, and this is how you're gonna be now?"  
  
"This has nothing you to do with you!" he shouted.  
  
"I know," Buffy admitted. "I know that it's not, but no matter what, it is too. Because I love you. And they love you. And you're just throwing that away. It's like you're screaming at all the people you've saved, all the people you've touched that they don't matter and you don't give a damn about them. What about the hopeless Angel? What about the people you're destined to save?"  
  
Somewhere in her speech, Angel collapsed. The walls tumbled down, the dams broke, the choirs sang and all that other crap, and tears filled his eyes. She reached out and held him. "Shhh, honey, it's okay," she murmured into his hair. "It's okay."  
  
Angel's arms reached out around her and they clung to each other desperately while the others watched on in awe. "I missed you," he mumbled.  
  
"I missed you, too," Buffy smiled weakly on his shoulder. "I love you."  
  
"Love you, too," he murmured into her shoulder.  
  
"Then tell me how we're going to work this out," she demanded. "Long distance or now, I need you in my life, some how."  
  
"Buffy we can't..."  
  
"That's not all there is to a relationship, Angel," she scolded. "And I'm sure Will can anchor your soul anyway. She and her girlfriend are major Wiccas."  
  
"Sunlight," he tried. "Normal life."  
  
"What? Some guy who works to 5 comes home to find his girl friend going off to risk her life and possibly not come home? Some guy I'll never love? No thanks," the Slayer cupped his chin and stared deeply into his eyes. "Now say 'yes, Buffy, we'll make this work.'"  
  
"Yes, Buffy, we'll make this work," he obliged. Buffy squeeled and threw herself into his arms, kissing him wildly.  
  
Cordelia cheered, Gunn whistled, and Wesley murmured "oh my." 


End file.
